


Hope

by Ulalume



Series: Argent Victor [1]
Category: SWTOR/Pacific Rim AU
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-18
Updated: 2013-10-18
Packaged: 2017-12-29 18:38:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1008706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ulalume/pseuds/Ulalume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is just a small intro that envisions Nik’s first sighting of the person he’ll eventually be matched with in the Jaeger Program.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not tagging this for the Pacific Rim fandom, as this AU doesn’t even mention any characters from the movie/graphic novel/etc. It’s really a SWTOR Blue Grey-Pacific Rim crossover AU with Kyr and Gerain as humans, set in the PR event/timeline.

Nik’s joking with the other candidates when the hairs on the back of his neck raise. Cold air breezes into the hall and he hears someone yell at the new arrivals to  _shut the outer door before opening the inner, damn Southerners!_ He flexes his shoulders and pulls his collar up higher before turning to appraise the newest batch.

They’re not much to look at, just like any other recruits from the lower continent — actually, from around the world — in their too-new coats and their chapped hands and shy grins. His pulse races with anticipation ( _maybe someone in this group will be compatible_ _?_ ) but he tamps down the reaction, knowing that he’ll likely be disappointed again. He’s halfway through his training and his hopes of becoming a Ranger are fading, but at least he knows he can still help the program in the engineering division. It’s not like he doesn’t already have a degree in the field.

_But to pilot a Jaeger…_

Nik reins his thoughts in. He feigns nonchalance, shrugs and starts to turn back to Xavier, who has already dismissed the lot (easy for him, he’s already in Pons training, having entered the Academy with his sister), when the gaggle of recruits breaks apart and he sees the guy, dark hair combed back, olive cheeks ruddy from the cold even though the winter has been mild, and he stares. He can’t stop staring, his mouth slightly open. There’s a twinge and a pressure like he’s choking on his breath. He feels slightly disembodied for a moment, the staccato beat of his heart in his chest. He swallows hard and shivers as the man turns and meets his gaze, but doesn’t look away until an officer steps between them, breaking their line of sight and steering the recruit out through another door.

He takes a deep breath, then another, frowns as he drops his gaze to his hands.

 _What_.

That’s the only thought he can manage.

 _What_.

"Earth to Nik, are you even listening?" Xavier waves his hand in front of his face.

It takes effort, but he buries the odd feeling and looks up at his friend, giving him something that he thinks approximates a casual smile (it feels more like a grimace and his face feels surprisingly warm).

"I am, go on," he gestures at Xavier, then rubs his arm where another candidate had whacked him hard in their training session. "Tell me what it feels like when you and Nat train together, seeing as I may never learn that firsthand."

Xavier’s expression briefly melts into one of sympathy.

"Hey, man. It’ll work out."

Nik shrugs. He concentrates hard on Xavier’s voice as the man tries to convey the experience, trying to drown out the other voice, the one that whispers  _that one, this time, this time, this time_. He manages to silence it enough so that by the time Natalia saunters over to sit next to her brother and adds her less poetic but equally engrossing descriptions, Nik has already dismissed the momentary giddiness as wishful thinking.

Later, when he’s made his way back to the barracks, showered and aching from another training session with the other candidates, still slightly hungry despite the basic rations, he sits cross-legged on his bed and tries to clear his mind of everything. He practices the exercises the instructors taught them, closing his eyes and letting the images appear and disappear until there is nothing. Only there is something.

There is a guy, a dark haired, dark eyed man.

_Compatible?_

He feels the rapid thud of anxiety? fright? in his chest again. His body is taut, and he forces his muscles to relax, although he knows there’s no use.

 _It’s not going to happen. It doesn’t mean anything. It will be like all the other promising matches. The one who couldn’t take the embarrassment of someone knowing everything about her. The one who_ — he winces — _ended up being too aggressive._

_Still…_

Nik sighes and opens his eyes. He knows what he feels.

He feels hope.


End file.
